One of my best friends in Amsterdam is Macedonian. He was a bit silent the other day so I asked whether something was wrong. "Not really. Just the situation in my home country", he answered.
I was embarrassed. I had absolutely no idea what was happening. He elaborated by telling that the European Council would decide on the candidate status of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. He said that a negative result would really slide the country into a dangerous direction. "There would be loads of people saying 'we told you so, they would never accept us'", he explained.
Without this discussion I would have totally missed the issue. I followed the summit closely both on Finnish and British media. It was all about the budget. I am not saying that the budget would not be a gigantic issue but I was not able to find a sentence on the decision on Macedonia from the BBC news page.
Well, the EU website helped in this respect. I downloaded the Council conclusions and the paragpraph X.24 reads as follows:
"In the light of the Commission's analysis, the European Council decides to grant candidate country status to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, taking into account, in particular, the substantial progress made in completing the legislative framework related to the Ohrid Framework Agreement, as well as its track record in implementing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (including its trade-related provisions) since 2001."
I met my friend today. He was happy, I would even say jolly. He said that this means that the change and progress needs to continue whoever forms the government. He was saying that this means stability for the nation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
There was an article (one page, huh, they are improving) about Macedonian situation in not-even-started-membership- negotiations in Helsingin Sanomat.
France is now totally against it,and after the budget-hassle they are more convinced that more the countries more the problems.
Balkan is in the middle of Europe, isn`t it? It was during the Nato bombings at least...
maria
It seems most definitively that it is not all about the money. However it also seems natural that the majority sets the agenda and the focus of interest.
With a population of a mere 2 million it is also not surprising that the media have not caught on to the Macedonian achievement (or should i say the European achievement).
Definitively the media are a powerful tool, almost the opium of the nation as someone said before. It not only decides what is "in" and what "out" but it also choses arbitrarily the extent to which it creates ignorance within its vier-reader/listener -ship, i.e. Us.
The power nevertheless lies with those who have the knowledge. SO the more we read the more we discover the subtlties in life.
Was it never all about the details!!!
Post a Comment